Now, he’s imagining the best from the tennis gathering in Indian Wells, Calif., the biggest tournament since the Australian Open, and also offering compelling evidence he’s not quite the one-trick pony some have made him out to be.

That change in viewpoint is the result of a resounding and surprising triumph over Wimbledon champion Andy Murray on Wednesday, one that has vaulted the 23-year-old Canadian into the quarter-finals with a chance to go a long way.

This won’t go down as the biggest win of Raonic’s career. He’d beaten Murray two of the previous three times they’d met, so there was ample reason to believe he could play with the Scot.

Raonic has had no success (0-9) against the other members of the Big Four — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — but against Murray he’s been more than effective.

Moreover, it was a fourth-round match, and at this juncture of Raonic’s career, fourth-round wins just don’t resonate in quite the same way they might have a year or two ago.

But that’s not to say this match didn’t have noteworthy elements to it.

For starters, Raonic wasn’t anything close to perfect. In particular, he sprayed forehands all day long, uncontrollably at times, and made 38 unforced errors in all.

And still won. That’s like winning a football game when your team commits four turnovers.

Second, this was a come-from-behind victory, something which has not been a Raonic speciality in these early stages of his career. In fact, he’s often been the one to falter down the stretch, and sometimes with his monster serve suddenly going quiet.

But not in this match.

He lost the first set 6-4, and in disheartening fashion by dropping 10 straight points. After winning the second set 7-5, he was then broken by Murray in third game of the third set, and while Murray is not yet quite himself as he works his way back from back surgery, it seemed like he was set to close out this one and advance.

Instead, Raonic broke back right away, then broke Murray again to charge ahead 4-2 before powering his way through a final service game to win 6-3 and move on to play Alexander Dolgopolov of Ukraine in the quarters.

That Raonic has been able to play this well this week is surprising, particularly to him.

After barely surviving his first match on Saturday against Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France in a third-set tiebreak, Raonic acknowledged he’d gone into the match “expecting the worst” because he’d only started playing points again three days before as he recovered from a slightly torn ankle tendon suffered at the Australian Open in January.

After a few stops and starts in his rehab, decided he was ready to go in Indian Wells, but was looking at this tournament and the next one in Miami, also a Masters Series event, as a dual opportunity just to get a few matches under his belt and get his season rolling.

He arrived in Indian Wells, really, as the second biggest Canadian story, with 20-year-old Eugenie Bouchard attracting more attention with her rise through the women’s game.

But Bouchard was eliminated on Tuesday and Raonic is still alive. Most of his peers in the under-25 club — Jerzy Janowicz, Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov — have also been sent packing.

In his second match in California, Raonic rolled past Colombia’s Alejandro Falla, and when he took the court against Murray he was no longer wearing the long blue strip of physio tape he’d been wearing in his first two matches, a sign he was mentally getting past the injury.

While the forehand was sloppy, the serving was strong from beginning (three aces in his first service game) to end (two aces in the last) and his court positioning was improved, allowing him to look less awkward. While Murray was too passive and only had 22 winners, Raonic stayed aggressive for three sets and compiled 42 winners.

But here’s the biggest stat: Raonic went to the net 33 times against Murray, one of the better defenders in the sport, and won the point 27 times.

That constant push forward allowed him to make some decisive volleys, and also coaxed some uncharacteristic errors out of Murray.

This is the kind of tennis Raonic’s co-coaches Ivan Ljubicic and Riccardo Piatti want him to play, a style they believe can take him to the next level.

It’s not the risky serve-and-volley approach some would advocate, something that has disappeared from the sport because the technology has increased the power and speed at which the ball is struck.

But it’s attacking tennis, getting to the net to close out points when the advantage is created, either after a big serve or a big forehand. It takes confidence, and when Raonic was still doing it to close out the game and pull ahead 5-2 in the third set, it was a very, very good sign.

If he can stay healthy, and if he can build on that, this could yet be the breakthrough year many have been anticipating.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.